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Keeping our focus on nutrition this month, we decided to take a look at some of our most popular recommendations. One that stuck out? Increasing your intake of nuts – it’s right up there with oatmeal. Based on the nutrition questionnaire each of our customers must complete, nuts may be your ticket to improvements in many biomarkers.

As you may know, we link each of our recommendations to the scientific literature that supports it. But, we’ve gone one step farther… we can now see how our recommendations are actually affecting InsideTracker users! Here, we compare the typical intakes of nuts for our users with their biomarker levels. The results speak for themselves – it’s time to go nuts!

Higher HDL

Users that reported consuming nuts one or more times per day had significantly higher levels of HDL cholesterol (the good kind!) than those that reported consuming nuts once per week or less (p<0.001 – for the non-science crowd, if the p value is less than .05, the value is statistically significant). Nuts are high in polyunsaturated fats, good fats that are shown to improve cholesterol levels, particularly HDL. 1

Lower Triglycerides

Users that reported consuming nuts at least once per day have significantly lowertriglyceridesthan users that reported consuming nuts one time per week or less (p<0.001). Similar to HDL, triglyceride levels respond positively to polyunsaturated fat intake. 2

Lower hsCRP

Users that reported consuming at least 2 servings of nuts per day had significantly lower levels of hsCRP than users that reported eating nuts less than once per week (p<0.05). Nuts are high in magnesium, which has been associated with lower levels of inflammatory markers, including hsCRP. 4

Lower Cortisol

Users that reported consuming nuts at least once per day had significantly lower levels of cortisol than users that reported eating nuts less than once per week (p<0.001). High intake of monounsaturated fats is associated with lower levels of cortisol. 3

Higher Testosterone in Men

Males that reported consuming nuts at least once per day had significantly higher levels of testosterone than males that reported consuming nuts only once per week or less (p<0.05). Nuts are high in magnesium which is associated with higher testosterone levels. Therefore, we recommend at least one serving per day for men with below optimal testosterone levels. 5

From our perspective, and as the data makes clear, the proof really is in pudding. We're seeing InsideTracker users following our recommendations and optimizing their biomarkers and performance. So reach into your nutrition and training toolbox, and grab some nuts!

Are you including nuts in your diet everyday? If not, should you be? Let InsideTracker help to take the guesswork out of your diet and show YOU the foods that YOU need.

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